How I became a PlayStation Addict

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Former IGN64.com Editor Doug Perry divulges his love for the PSX; praises the Gods for his savior.

By IGN Staff

I must confess. I'm a PlayStation addict.

But I used to hate PlayStation games. I owned a Sega Saturn when everyone here at Imagine bought a PlayStation. I owned a Genesis and a Super NES in the early '90s. I played the heck out of those systems, but bet on Sega, not Sony.

Heck, I started the N64 site here at Imagine Games Network. I dove into the fanaticism of the Nintendo 64 and never came up. Nothing on the PlayStation could match the phenomenal achievement of Super Mario 64 and Wave Race 64, or the arcade fun of Blast Corps and Mario Kart 64.

And then the dark, sober days set in. The days of waiting and waiting and waiting. Then, the Christmas of '97 happened.

If it wasn't waiting for Banjo-Kazooie, which was delayed until after Christmas '97 (but was previously scheduled for November '97), it was the day the few Goldeneye copies shipped in and were gobbled by glassy-eyed N64 fans. A few teenagers were so hungry for N64 games, the just ate theirs, swallowed them like alligators eat small rodents. One bite.

That Christmas, N64 got Diddy Kong Racing and NFL Quarterback Club, and no RPGS. PlayStation got Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider 2, Crash Bandicoot 2, Colony Wars, G-Police, and Gameday '98. It was a telling sign, like a message from the almighty Videogame God, saying, "Hey Doug, deal with this man, it won't go away. Stop playing Goldeneye until your eyes fill with blood, until your fingers are peeling away, until your wife threatens to burn your cartridges and sell your N64. Dude, like, you know what to do."

Then it happened. Good games crasahed down in torrents on PSX. Resident Evil 2, Tekken 3, Gran Turismo, and damn, have you see those Crash 3 movies? During this time, N64 publishers were squabbling over whether they could get Dual Heroes published in the US, and when Capcom might eventually publish its first N64 game.

That was the turning point. But I couldn't leave the N64 by then. I was long gone. Nightly, I dreampt of finding Luigi in Mario 64 and ached for new sea creatures to appear in Wave Race. If it weren't for Julian Rignall, IGN's editorial director, I would have been sunk. He put me on this site. He showed me the way.

Now, things are different. I have a different perspective on the world. Perspective correction isn't necessary. Anti-aliasing is for fuzzy, cute things. And did you say Dual Shock Analog compatible? Heh heh heh. PlayStation's got it all.

My world is no longer limited to 16 or 32 MBs. It's huge, massive -- as big as five discs (3,250 MBs). I can hear the Red Book Audio sounds crashing out of my stereo hook up, I can play more RPGS than I have fingers, and I can be entertained by the best fighting, racing, puzzle, RPG, and action games all on my PlayStation. And best of all, I can look forward to lots of games this winter holiday.

Golden-what? Diddy-who? Super-huh 64? Just give me the real thing. Metal. Something Solid. Something I can Reave into my Soul, something that I can Crash into.